Power Plants California

One reason for last year's electricity blackouts was that a number of the state's electric power plants were down at one time for supposed maintenance or repairs. But state officials believe that the plants often were taken off line for phantom repairs to create a false shortage to drive up prices.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Tuesday that it signed long-term power contracts that would result in construction of four gas-fired power plants in California, resulting in an additional 1,780 megawatts of electricity by 2010. One of the new plants will be owned by PG&E Co. and the rest will be owned by others with contracts to provide power to PG&E, the company said. In all, the plants will cost more than $1.5 billion to build.

President Bush on Saturday called for a "new kind of conservation" that saves power through tax incentives and energy-efficient technology, signaling a shift in tone as he prepares to unveil his long-range energy policy. Bush's focus on conservation in his weekly radio address follows criticism that he and Vice President Dick Cheney have been drafting a plan that is heavily weighted toward more oil and gas drilling while giving short shrift to other approaches to the energy problem.

With a savvy electricity contract and their own power plants, California's public universities have escaped the power crisis gripping most of the state. Seeking to avoid the perils of the volatile spot market, the University of California and California State University signed long-term electricity contracts with Houston-based Enron Energy Services in 1998. The deals locked them in to a four-year fixed rate of 5% below the 1998 market price for electricity.

January 30, 2001 | ED DAVIS, Ed Davis was a Republican state senator from 1980 to 1992 and chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1969 to 1978

Facing what is fast becoming the worst energy crisis in our state's history, many people wonder whether California's legislators did the right thing when they deregulated our electric utility system in 1996. Some of these very same legislators are now calling for re-regulation and others for a state takeover of California's multibillion-dollar energy infrastructure. These lawmakers aren't just panicking, they're plain wrong.

Power plant owners accused of gouging California last winter complained to a Senate committee Tuesday that the state is now slighting them and going to the Pacific Northwest to buy electricity. And the state responded: Tough luck. "There's no 'buy California' rule here," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources, which has been buying much of the power California uses since January.

Three months after his initial choice of an industry lobbyist was condemned by environmentalists and rejected by Democratic legislators, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday appointed a respected air-quality scientist to chair the California Air Resources Board. The Republican governor's choice of Democrat Robert F.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion, more than a decade ago, that breathing someone else's cigarette smoke can cause cancer galvanized support for passage of tough anti-smoking laws in California and nationwide. Let's hope a new study forging a clear link between exposure to soot and lung cancer also prompts swift political action, the most significant of which would be a reversal by President Bush of his administration's unhealthy effort to weaken air quality rules.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer asked federal regulators Monday to prevent financially teetering Calpine Corp. from reneging on a key state electricity contract if the power plant operator filed for bankruptcy protection. "This contract helps maintain the stability of our electrical supply, and we need that safeguard to help protect ratepayers from suffering a repeat of the energy crisis," Lockyer said in a statement.

Edison International on Wednesday forecast long-term profit growth of 8% to 12% a year, fueled by recent moves to trim debt and stronger results at its utility business. Rosemead-based Edison, in a public filing and in a meeting with analysts in New York, raised its earnings forecast for 2004 by 3 cents a share. The parent of Southern California Edison also sees 2005 earnings topping expectations as it benefits from moves to cut back debt and expenses.